RedLine - Whitespace Gallery - Edinburgh - 30.08.25

The concept of Redline emerged after having an inner struggle between my own raw, automatic sketches and the desire to experiment with new tools. I knew that there was a ‘redline’ for me somewhere with the over-use of Ai and machines in my artwork but wasn’t sure how to formalise it so i had a show titled Red Line where i had a broad red line intersect the gallery space at Whitespace Gallery in Edinburgh.

On one side was my very raw human work, automatic sketches, primal paintings, a work titled The Promise, which was a text work, declaring that everything inside the red line was made by my human hand and a work titled Blackbox, a monocular pyramidic black box which had it’s base attached to the wall which had a further work nestled inside it which could only be viewed by a human.

On the other was work that had been manipulated by Ai using my raw drawings as a seed image. On this side was also 1970s IBM 5081 computer punch cards which had been incised by a robocutter with the shape of the ‘human space’ and some AR work like the video below which plays when the first frame of the video (as a still image on the wall in the gallery) is viewed via an AR application.

https://youtube.com/shorts/GXyZ7O0j2uo

During the development of the show it occurred to me that human agency is important in the dance between Human and artificial intelligence. A thin red thread of human intent must carry through in any machine output in order for the work to be valid.

Each of the works in the machine zone carries an NFC chip embedded in the artwork. It acts as a signature but also carries the preliminary sketches from the human zone along with other supporting material like videos of process and audio clips. The preliminary sketches were certified with ScoreDetect and Certiphoto to prove that they were indeed real sketches and not Ai outputs, this information is stored permanently on the Ethereum blockchain. Scoredetect is used by forensics and government agencies to confirm whether photos are real and CertiPhoto triangulates the geographic location and date and time. All of this information is packaged neatly in an embedded recess in the side of the artwork containing an NFC chip. When a device is hovered near to the chip, a pop-up appears on the device screen which links to a secure site containing all of these supporting documents.

In conclusion the show moved me forward with my thinking about human agency and authenticity and has ignited a fire in my belly to continue.